


We All Fall Down

by Aramirandme81



Series: One Word Elaborations And One Shots [13]
Category: The Almighty Johnsons
Genre: Dubious Consent, Dysfunctional Family, Gambling, Gen, Kidnapping, Non-Graphic Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-02
Updated: 2014-03-02
Packaged: 2018-01-14 08:05:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,420
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1259035
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aramirandme81/pseuds/Aramirandme81
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Elaboration on Tumble: Anders can feel the ground beneath his feet slowly crumbling, and he wonders: If he keeps standing here, will someone reach for him or will they let him tumble?</p>
            </blockquote>





	We All Fall Down

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Elenhin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elenhin/gifts).



> For Elenhin.  
> Sorry it took so long, you know how it is sometimes but it's done now and I hope you like it.

It’s not his fault it really isn’t.

No, seriously. It Isn’t!

It’s Mikes fault for never brothering to learn how to use Ullr’s powers in the first place.

You don’t just take a wild animal and cage it up or chain it to the wall and then just release it and expect it to obey.

That’s not how it works.

And the gods are very much like wild animal: Powerful, beautiful, deadly and unpredictable.

You want to survive you learn to read them and how to work with them not against then, and you never ever just use them.

 

Yet that had been exactly what Mike had done.

Mike had simply played game after game of whatever suited him and won, without giving thanks or curving the god’s cravings.

Of course it had bit him in the arse.

It had done so when he’d done it at twenty one and it had done so now.

 

What had happened you ask?

Well for some reason or other Mike had gone gambling, and for some reason Olaf had failed to stop him in time even if he’d known how Mike apparently got under Ullr’s unrestricted influence.

 

One thing led to another, and Mike walked away with several thousands of dollars. Several hundred thousands of dollars.

How he’d even let the stakes get that high or actually managed to get out of there with the money was anybody’s guess, but the fact was he had.

And now the not so nice men he’d won it from wanted it back.

 

They came by the bar and threatened Mike but he said he didn’t have it, which was true he’d invested it so it could grow. 

Normally not the worst choice, but when you do it with money won from the kind of people that carries both gun’s and grudges it wasn’t exactly wise. But Ullr still flowed freely after his massive power boost so Mike was confident that these people couldn’t hurt him. And he was right they couldn’t hurt him when they tried.

Him, they couldn’t hurt him.

But he wasn’t exactly an island now was he?

 

Long story short the fuckers grabbed Ty when he was heading home after work and now they were threatening to give him back a piece at the time if Mike didn’t pay up, and pay up fast.

 

Mike was frantic, he was ready to make battle plans and storm the fuckers hideout, which Michele was all for, no surprise there. Thanks to Ullr they knew exactly where they were and that Ty was there and alive.  
Axl wanted to call the police but Mike shot him down and both Olaf and Ingrid agreed that the law was probably not a good idea.

They had ordered Anders to speak to them when next they called, not that he wouldn’t have done so without an order, but then Mike always did like giving orders and one of his brothers being kidnapped was hardly going to change that. Sadly as Anders had pointed out even before the call came through, Bragi wasn’t nearly as effective over the phone and that these were not the kind of people that would really want to let Ty go without getting their money back in the first place. Heck even if they paid everything they had now and promised to pay the rest back later they weren’t going to want to let him go.

The only thing he could say he did accomplish was instilling the need to give Ty back alive when they got the money and not try to double cross them and kill him or some such thing.

And heck all it cost Anders was an hour of nosebleed that not even Michele and Yggdrasil could do anything about and a few hours of intense agony when the migraine set in almost the minute the fuckers had hung up. It was a gamble he’d taken, because he knew forcing Bragi on someone like that would overtax him, maybe to the point of putting Bragi out of the game for several days but it was worth it to make sure Ty was going to be safe and untouched. 

 

As soon as he could breathe without wanting to pass out and open his eyes far enough to focus he was up again and worked frantically to see what he could liquidate to get the money, because as attached as he were to financial security he was much more attached to Ty. And though he’d made sure they would not hurt him until the deadline fell, that deadline was still out there looming large. 

 

“You’re not exactly being a fountain of ideas.” Mike accused as Anders tapped away on his i-phone. The fact that Anders had gone to lie down did not sit easily with the older Johnson, he felt Anders was letting Ty down, was letting All of them down really.

“I’m working on getting the money back out of the system.” Anders bits back, he’s still hurting enough that he has a hard time concentrating. He’s tired as fuck since he’d not slept since Ty had been taken a day ago, and the few hours he’d just spend in bed had been neither comfortable nor restful whatever Mike seems to think on the subject. And to top it off this all comes at the end of a three day work marathon so he’d basically not slept in a week.

“Work faster.” Axl grouched, also annoyed at his brothers perceived weakness.

“If I work any faster it will take longer because I’ll make mistakes.” Anders said trying his best not to sneer back since tempers were flaring and if he set Axl of now he’d find himself in need of bandages or a body bag depending on both Axl’s and Michele’s mood. Neither of which he was willing to gamble on at the best of times.

“You know you could just enter a lot of raffle’s or something to get the money.” Stacey suggested, not unkindly but naively since everyone had suggested it at some point and had nearly gotten their heads torn off for the effort.

“No. That shit always ends badly. I’m not risking it again.” Mike said grinding his teeth.

“You could try asking the one person we know who has the kind of money we need.” Anders suggested.

“Who?” Olaf said looking up.

“Colin.” Michele said shaking her head. “He’ll not lend it to us.”

“He might if Mike actually went and ...begged for it.” Anders pointed out.

“Like hell I’m begging.” Mike said glaring at Anders.

“Mike...” Axl began.

“You go Anders. He’s your ‘friend’.” Mike bit out.

“And as much as I’m sure the bastard would like having me beg on my knees it’s not me he’d want to see there the most. It would be a waste of time sending me first, simply go there and ask Mike.”

 

Of course he’d been preaching to the deaf, blind and tremendously dumb.

So he’d found himself in Colin Gunderson’s house, on his knees begging for help. Literally on his knees, he was not too proud for that when Ty’s life was at stake.

Turned out he’d only been half right when he’d said Colin wouldn’t help if he was the one to show.

No, Colin would neither give nor lend him the money or even some of it. But he would help Anders get as much money for his assets as possible in the short amount of time they had until the ‘deadline’. 

For a price naturally.

And the offer would expire the second Anders left Colin’s house.

 

Anders had called Mike and begged him to come beg Colin himself, begged him to sell the bar, to do something to get the money. 

“Is there no way you can get the money or get him to help?” Mike had asked and Anders in his stupidity and naivety had answered “There is.” He’d hoped he’d gotten the chance to explain just what that entailed and would mean but Mike had simply run him over.

“Then do it.”

“No Mike you don’t understand I..”

“For fucks sake Anders it’s your brother.”

“I know but..” Colin moved up behind him.

Then Mike had given the phone to Axl and told him that Anders could do it, but he wouldn’t do so. Axl took that the way anyone would have.

“Anders you will do it and you will do it now.”

“Axl you don’t..” Anders tried and felt Colin reach around him and start unbuttoning his shirt.

“I don’t want to hear about it. As Odin I order you to do it.”

Anders closed his eyes in resignation.

“As my lord Odin commands.” He managed to get out, hanging up and letting the phone drop from hands gone numb.

He felt Colin’s smug smile against the back of his neck. 

“They really don’t deserve you.” Colin said as he finished with the buttons on the shirt and reached inside.

“And you do?” Anders managed.

“No. No I don’t think I do.” Colin confessed and Anders felt a brief moment of hope that was squashed as Colin spun him around and drew him close. “But I will have you anyway.”

 

It’s two days later, the morning of the deadline day and the others does not look pleased and only Olaf really looks relived when he shows up with a suitcase packed with the money they need.

“About time.” Mike growls as he nearly wrenches the thing from his weak grip, and Anders tries his best to convince himself that it’s only because he’s worried about Ty that his brother fails to ask any questions or take notice of the marks on his wrists and neck.

It’s a bit harder to convince himself when everyone else also fails to see anything. And because of Axl’s decree that he doesn’t want to hear about it he can’t even bring it up himself.

 

They make the call and an exchange is set up to take place in an hour’s time at a desolate location on top of a cliff overlooking the ocean a good distance outside of town. 

They arrive in two cars, Mike’s and Anders’s, so that if anything happens to one car they still have a way of escaping, because none of them trusts these guys.

 

The shady men with guns are there and so is Ty.

He’s a bit bruised but they all seem to be days old and not nearly as extensive as they could have been, so if nothing else it seems that Anders forcing Bragi down the line had done some good in protecting his brother. 

 

All things considered the exchange goes well.

Or you know, the Johnson family version of going well. 

 

Which means that there are only three shots fired and only one hit it’s intended target, though thanks to Anders slamming into him Ty is not hit fully in the back but only has a graze of the shoulder that still bleed like a bitch and stings like one too it seems.

The three surviving mobsters, yes surviving because Ullr is deadly accurate with knives as well, flee with the money when the Johnsons are all focused on Ty and not getting hit by bullets.

 

“Ow! Fuck Anders that hurts.” Ty bites out as his brothers weight bears down on him when he tries to get up from the heap they’ve landed in when Anders pulled him down as he dove for cover.

“M’sorry.” Anders mumbles trying to move so he won’t have to lean on Ty to get up. Axl solves that by taking hold of the back of Anders suit jacket and basically throwing him off.

“Let me see that Ty.” Mike says once he’s made sure the mobsters are gone. “It doesn’t look too bad, let’s get you into the car and back to Michele.” He says helping Ty up and handing him over to Olaf, before he himself turns to where Anders is just sitting up trying to catch the breath Axl’s throw had knocked out of him.

“You bloody idiot.” Mike growls and pulls him up, ignoring the way Anders winces. “Why the hell didn’t you get them to not try anything at the exchange?”

“Mike I did, I...It must not be the guys I spoke to on the phone.”

“We nearly lost Ty because of you. What good are you when you can’t even be of use as Bragi?”

“Mike...” Anders looks at his brother with big eyes, and if Mike had been any less angry he might have seen the hurt in them. But he is angry, very much so.

“The only good you did was getting Colin to help with the money and you had to be ordered to do that. What kind of person doesn’t help his own brother?” Mike shakes his head then let go of Anders and shove him back towards the ledge of the cliff. “Drive back yourself, I’m not having you ride with me I can’t stand to look at you right now.” He says and walks off.

Anders watches him go then turn to where Axl is standing.

“Axl...” He tries but his baby brother just sighs, shakes his head and with the parting words: “I don’t really want you as a brother either. And you better hurry home Anders, wouldn’t want Ty’s blood to stain your shirt.” Leaves as well.

 

Standing on the ledge Anders can feel the ground beneath his feet slowly crumbling, and he wonders: If he keeps standing here, will someone reach for him or will they let him tumble? 

 

Watching the others help Ty into Mike’s car and then get in themselves and drive away without ever looking back at him he has his answer.

The cliff continues to crumble, the edge getting ever nearer to where Anders still stands, the blood stain on his shirt continuing to expand because it isn’t Ty’s blood but his own that’s marring it. 

But what does he care for bleeding out? 

He’s sold his firm, his apartment and his body to get the money Mike had gambled with.

He’s suffered through pain and humiliation to insure Ty made it back as healthy and whole as possible, he’s even taken a bullet meant for him...

If that isn’t enough to make him worthy of the title brother then nothing ever will be.

Maybe it’s a good thing the ground is crumbling.

 

Maybe he’ll stay here and wait for the tumble....

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and Kudos are most welcome things.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Living on the edge, you can't help yourself from fallin'](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1370608) by [Aramirandme81](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aramirandme81/pseuds/Aramirandme81)




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